Thoughts and stories by J.D. Phillippi, storyteller and writer

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A New Beginning – October 2

A lot of things are different between living in WNY and RVA. Some are just a little different, some are majorly different.

The biggest change is simply a matter of scale. Certainly, that was something that we “expected”. Moving away from a very small city in a largely rural county to to the 43rd largest metro area in the nation (as of 2010) is a HUGE change in the scale of life. The city alone has over two hundred thousand people and the metro area is well past a million. Buffalo is slightly larger (although Buffalo’s population continues to decline while Richmond is showing almost 5% growth) but we were only occasional visitors in Buffalo. We are dealing with the reality of the city on a daily basis.

That means more traffic, which was expected. What we’ve discovered we have to adjust for is when we arrive at places. For example, in WNY we could walk in to the movie theater at virtually the last minute, get our popcorn and drinks, and still make the previews comfortably.

Not so much here.

At the same time, businesses around here are prepared for that number of customers. It’s just an adjustment we are having to make in our assumptions.

126 days without a rude Virginian.

Had some great food recently. Lots of Asian. Wonderful lunch at Siam Paragon on the Midlothian Turnpike. It was a little slow so we got the chance to talk with one of the owners. She was a great rep for the restaurant. They had a visiting cook from Thailand who was doing special orders that day. Pick a meat (I went with chicken) and he would create something special. My Garlic and Chicken was every bit of that. Also checked out the Saigon River Vietnamese restaurant farther down the Turnpike. I think this was my first experience with Vietnamese and I enjoyed it a lot. Did a Chicken Curry that was very spicy hot but also great flavor.

Here’s something to make my friends in other metro areas crazy. Two pictures, both from downtown Richmond, both for parking garage/ramps in excellent locations. Photos taken mid-day on a weekday. Read ’em and weep.